


I know who you will become

by sapphire_child



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Community: then_theres_us, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-01
Updated: 2010-06-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 23:29:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12592960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphire_child/pseuds/sapphire_child
Summary: He always finds her in the places he least expects but he certainly isn’t expecting to bump into her on his way back from Tesco’s one day.





	I know who you will become

**Author's Note:**

> meant to be written for challenge 35 at [](https://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=then_theres_us)[then_theres_us](https://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=then_theres_us) but I missed the deadline :P

He always finds her in the places he least expects but he certainly isn’t expecting to bump into her on his way back from Tesco’s one day.

He remembers her pink and yellow, bright and bold but right now she’s fourteen, skinny and surprisingly awkward. She has dark hair (which throws him) and she looks pale and washed out. It doesn’t help that she’s wearing far too much eyeliner (not that she’s ever been shy with the stuff) and if it weren’t for the familiar pink hoodie she sports, he probably would have just passed her by without even realising who she was.

Now that he’s seen her though, he can’t help but stop and stare. On closer inspection he realises that her jeans are more thread than fabric and her fingers are curled awkwardly around a cigarette. He is simultaneously repulsed and compelled by her. After all, it’s _Rose_. But she’s also smoking and he detests the disgusting habit with all of his (new, new, new) being.

Actually, he remembers suddenly, so did she. He gazes wonderingly at her, this girl who even now has the ability to surprise him. She’s so very different to the woman he knew and yet so much the same. It’s disconcerting how much it aches to see her and he only realises that he’s still staring when the chain link fence behind her rattles as she shifts her weight, crosses one leg over the other.

“Wot?” she demands in a voice husky from smoke. She’s not frightened really, just a little unnerved by this strange man who’s staring at him. Yeah, that’s his Rose alright – fearless and foolishly brave. Although...

“Those things’ll kill you.” He blurts and she looks startled before shooting a guilty look at the toxic stick between her fingers.

“S’not mine.” She tells him insolently. “M’just holding it for someone.”

“Really?” he says dryly, feeling vaguely like a parent scolding a naughty child. “Aren’t you a bit young to be smoking?”

Rose flushes magnificently. “I’m nearly fifteen!” she rages and when he beams at how the colour in her cheeks has brought her to life she scowls so deeply that he can’t help but laugh out loud in sheer delight.

“Shut up!” she tries to snap at him but it comes out as more of a whine. “You can’t be any older than – what? Twenty?”

That stops his laughter. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” He advises and she gives him a gentle, mocking smile.

“That supposed to sound clever or somethin’?” she asks and he smiles back at her, just a little.

“Sort of, yes.”

“Prat.” She returns good-naturedly, but then she drops the cigarette to the ground and grinds it into the concrete with the toe of one scuffed boot. At his questioning look she merely mumbles, “Almost burnt out anyway.”

She shoves her hands in her jean pockets then and he’s so very tempted to ask her what she’s doing here, why she’s standing around in a bad part of town smoking a cigarette against a fence and not at home with Jackie, or at work, or at school.

Instead he says, “Well take care of yourself then...” just as Rose says, “You been to Tesco’s then?” and nods towards the bag dangling from his fingertips, taking an almost involuntary step forward as she does so.

It’s only then that he notices the gleam in her eyes, how thin her usually rounded face is. She looks quite unwell really. He wonders briefly at what else she’s been putting into her body (and what she clearly hasn’t been getting enough of) and then finds that he doesn’t really want to know.

“Is that why you smoke?” he guesses and can tell from her startled expression that he’s hit right on the money. “To stop yourself from feeling hungry?”

Rose catches his gaze but then has to look away. “My boyfriend doesn’t really have much food at his place. An’ I don’t have any money so...”

“Couldn’t you ask him?”

She looks terror struck and the Doctor has to stop himself from doing something very stupid right then and there. But he can’t just go around messing with her timeline, he’s already risked too much just by stopping and talking to her. If he somehow managed to change her timeline so that she never met him...he feels sick at the very idea.

So instead of finding this boyfriend of hers and giving him a good talking to as he so desperately wants to, he offers her help in the only way he can.

He holds out the plastic shopping bag.

He hadn’t really wanted to take the bag (the environment and all that) but the cashier had given him a pointed look when he’d tried putting the carton of milk into his jacket pocket and with a sigh he had desisted. He’s glad now. How on Earth would he have explained pulling whole loaves of bread out of his pockets in front of her?

Rose stares at his offering a moment and then looks up incredulously.

“Serious?” she gestures awkwardly at the bag. “You’re not gonna just _give_ this stuff to me...”

The Doctor merely hooks the handles over her outstretched hand. “That’s _exactly_ what I’m going to do.”

Her fingers tighten reflexively around the thin, cheap plastic and as he lets go and she bears the full weight of bread and milk and biscuits she looks up at him again, totally confused.

“But...why?” she says wonderingly. “There’s gotta be some sort o’ catch right?”

“No catch.”

“But...” she’s still searching for some drawback to the situation, still so uncertain by the kindness of this unknown stranger. He interrupts her before she can think up any more excuses.

“Maybe,” he says with a gentle smile. “Maybe I’m giving it to you because I think you need it more than me.”

“Bollocks,” she snorts. “People don’t just give food away cos...”

“Sometimes,” he counters her softly. “People do things just because they can. Not because they feel obligated, just because they want to make someone’s day a little brighter. Remember that.”

He leaves Rose behind with a wink and a feeling of warm contentment. She for her part looks stunned but pleased. He all but skips back to the TARDIS, not even minding that he’s going to have to go find another Tesco’s now or face the wrath of his latest companion.

“What took you so long?” Amy demands of him the second he’s inside. “I’ve been waiting for ages! Hey, where’s our milk and stuff?”

“I gave it away,” the Doctor says, unconcerned.

Amy’s eyebrows shoot up. “You gave it _away_? To who? A homeless person?”

“No,” he says patiently. “To a friend.”

“A friend?” she repeats incredulously, chasing him around the console as he begins to launch them across London. “ _Please_ tell me you didn’t give our food away to some homeless person you had a chat with in an alley or something.”

“No,” he tells her, a little peeved. “She’s an actual friend of mine. Well, she will be. She hasn’t met me yet.”

Amy looks intrigued by this. “That happen to you often? Meeting people before they’ve met you?”

“Sometimes.” He says vaguely, checking to make sure that they’ve landed safely. “It’s kind of an occupational hazard.”

“You ever meet anyone who knew you and you didn’t know them?”

“Loads of times.”

“Like River?”

He stops halfway down the stairs to turn and poke a finger into Amy’s face.

“Rose is _nothing_ like River.”

“Oooh,” Amy says, all big eyes now. “Rose hmmn? That’s a pretty name...”

“Stop it.” He says firmly and for once she shuts up straight away, obviously sensing that this is not a subject she should necessarily be teasing him about.

“So...why’d you give her all our stuff?” she asks, all traces of mirth gone now and down to business.

The Doctor pauses at the door, smiling faintly. “Because....just because.”

Amy stares at him.

And then he starts laughing and laughing, and he can’t stop for a very long time. When he finally finishes, Amy is staring at him with her hands on her hips and a look on her face that tells him she thinks he’s a complete nutter.

“Doctor?” she says pleasantly.

“Pond?” he returns.

“You are _completely_ bonkers.”

“Always was where she was concerned.” He said, mostly to himself as he opened the door and stepped out.

Amy crashed into the back of him a second later.

“Oh what _now_?” she demanded but the Doctor was laughing again, this time at a door covered in graffiti.

“Oh now, that’s _classic_.” He clapped his hands together once, shaking with laughter. “Oh well done. Come along now Pond.”

And snagging Amy by the elbow, the two of them set off for the nearest Tesco’s leaving the TARDIS standing within feet of...

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/26337514629/in/dateposted/) [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/37405023354/in/photostream/) [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/26337513999/in/photostream/)


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